Endangering Our Environment:

In 2010, global weather horrors cost an estimated $220 billion.  Yet, our government is among the leading and most active climate change deniers – but that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to anti-green policies.

1a) The National Science Advisor position was dropped. As Bob McDonald, host of the CBC science radio program Quirks & Quarks, put it: “The one scientist in this country who had direct access to the Prime Minister is being dismissed. Canada’s National Science Adviser, Dr. Arthur Carty, was appointed by former Prime Minister Paul Martin to provide expert advice on the government’s role in matters of science and science policy. Now, less than four years after the position was created, the Harper government feels that it’s no longer necessary. The National Science Adviser is a voice of reason to the government over actions it should take on issues such as climate change, genetically modified foods, managing fisheries, sustaining the environment - any time the politicians need to be educated on the basic science behind those often controversial issues.”

1b) A report revealed that Environment Canada scientists are being muzzled on the subject of climate change. They have been prevented from attending conferences, their websites closed down.

2) Posted by Montreal Environment in Biodiversity, Resource Development, Transport, October, 2010: “Every time one hears ‘streamline’ and ‘cutting red tape’ from a minister, you can be sure something more significant hides behind promises of government efficiency. If you are worried that the recent economic turmoil will push governments to slacken environmental regulations you can count in Canada to take the lead. Le Devoir has revealed that the Harper government is planning to pass amendments to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act and Review Regulations by limiting EIA to projects above $10 million. Under the current EIA Act all projects with potential negative environmental impacts or receiving federal financing have to submit to the EIA process. By limiting the scope of the federal EIA, the government wants to fast-track the many infrastructure projects to be financed under the Building Canada seven year plan (2007-2014). Non-exempted projects will be undergoing the provincial EIA process that in general is much less rigorous than its federal counterpart.”

3a) The Harper Conservatives earned a reputation for heavy-handed stonewalling during climate change negotiations in Copenhagen. In Cancun, they lobbied against an extension of the Kyoto Accord, and Canada was given the fourth consecutive Fossil of the Year award (also known as the Colossal Fossil) for the fourth consecutive year. The Fossil awards are distributed by a coalition of over 500 international organizations

3b) "The budget is silent on Canada's 2011 contribution to supporting climate action in poorer countries. Even if the government does announce this support later in the year, its omission from today's budget likely means the funding would not meet the crucial test of being new and additional to Canada's aid budget." Pembina Institute reaction to 2011 federal budget.

3c) In 2008, the oil industry received $1.4 Billion in federal subsidies with $851 million of that going to the Alberta tar sands. The Harper government considers tar sands oil “ethical” – in spite of resulting CO2 emissions (100,000 tonnes daily), forest clearances the size of Florida, Athabaska River pollution, high rates of cancer among nearby native communities, deformed fish, and toxic tailing ponds.

3d) "The government could have chosen today to kick-start Canada's clean energy transformation by phasing out federal subsidies for oil companies, in line with a G20 commitment in 2009. While this budget includes a minor subsidy adjustment, it leaves more than $1 billion in tax breaks for oil companies on the table. A leaked memo from officials at the Department of Finance last year confirmed such support is no longer necessary.” Pembina Institute reaction to the 2011 federal budget.

3e) The government claims it can’t bring in “cap and trade” legislation without US co-operation – now that Obama is ready to cut emissions, we shall see.

3f) At the same time, the government allowed its main renewable energy program to run out of money. It also let the job-creating, CO2-reducing ecoENERGY home retrofit tax credit expire. This was reversed in the 2011 federal budget, which offered a one-year extension, but, as CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos put it, if it was a worthy program why was it cancelled in the first place?

3g) In the 2011 federal budget, the government ignored the NDP's call for an HST reduction for home heating fuel.

3h) Canada is the only OECD country that does not have a national public transit strategy.  

3i) "It is disappointing … that this budget ignores opportunities to position Canada to create jobs and 

compete effectively in the rapidly growing global clean energy market. In addition to ongoing and targeted support — beyond a single year — for renewable energy and efficiency, the federal government needs to put a price on greenhouse gas pollution (or, at a minimum, impose strong regulations) to curb the growth of greenhouse gas pollution from sectors such as the oilsands. Research shows that supporting clean energy, increasing energy efficiency and implementing comprehensive climate policies could create more jobs than continuing with business as usual. From a government that prides itself on job creation and sound economic management, it's unfortunate that Minister Flaherty's budget speech failed to recognize the job-creation potential of carbon pricing and other climate policies.” Pembina Institute reaction to federal budget.

4a) Given the nuclear disasters in Japan, it is interesting to note that in 2009, Canada announced its plans to help India expand its civil nuclear energy sector. Canadian firms which would benefit from this include the federally-owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Cameco Corp., and SNC-Lavalin. Canada would help build 25 to 30 reactors and supply uranium. Behind this news is the promise of more inadequately regulated uranium mining in Canada, more nuclear waste sites, more human, land, and wildlife contamination, and more material for lethal weapons. India is now reconsidering.

4b) In January, 2008, the Harper government fired Linda Keen as president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Canada’s nuclear watchdog. This followed a month of increasingly politicized battles between the commission and Canada’s primary nuclear operator, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. The government blamed Keen for unnecessarily closing the Chalk River nuclear reactor and the resulting domestic shortage of life-saving medical isotopes for cancer and cardiac diagnosis and other treatment. Ironically, the commission was concerned that work hadn’t been adequately completed regarding the earthquake-resistant emergency power system.

5a) “Harper has not been vocal about the need to protect our oceans” and, according to Sarah King. Greenpeace, tends to only speak on behalf of industry, particularly the offshore oil industry.  “The Harper government’s environmental record on oceans is much like his record on all things environmental - grim … While he has been in power we’ve seen fisheries management remain inadequate to combat declining stocks in Canadian waters, though he did do one thing right by ordering the federal inquiry into the decline of the Fraser river sockeye salmon. The federal government did not support a call to protect the ailing Atlantic bluefin tuna under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) that would ban its trade when other nations were in favour.” 

5b) King: “Also, the government’s position on its responsibilities under the Species at Risk Act (SARA), as it relates to marine species, remains weak. The feds recently appealed a ruling by a BC federal court judge who found that Fisheries and Oceans Canada wasn’t living up to its obligations under SARA when it came to protecting BC’s resident killer whales. Fisheries and Oceans Canada under Harper is more concerned about ensuring the short-term health of the fishing and farming industry than the long-term health of these industries and the species and oceans on which they depend.”

5c) The NDP wants the Harper government to be more open with Canadians about the possibility of genetically modified salmon – which grows twice as fast as normal – being approved. The NDP fisheries critic tabled Motion 648, which calls on the government to reveal when it will consider the approval of GM fish. The non-binding motion also asks the government to halt any approvals without further scientific study on the safety of such fish for human consumption. "The public has a right to know if this is really happening and to know of any risks connected to human health, and of potential impact on the fishery, marine species, habitat and ecosystems," said Donnelly. There is also an approval request at Health Canada for a pig spliced with mouse DNA – to be consumed by humans.

5d) King: “The Harper government has been supportive of offshore oil, despite the tragedy of the BP Gulf spill. Harper created the Tarium Niryutait Marine Protected Area, which covers approximately 1,800 square kilometres of the Mackenzie River Delta and estuary in the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic, but while he has promised no drilling in Canada’s deep Beaufort Sea until at least 2014, BP and other companies have already been granted exploration licenses.”

6) An amendment to the Fisheries Act, originally designed to protect fish, was made under the Liberals in 2002 designating certain lakes as "tailings impoundment areas." At the time, it was thought that the redesignation would allow better policing of already-affected lakes.  But, since 2006, the Conservative government has used the amendment to allow the transformation of healthy, productive lakes into tailings dumps – also negatively affecting nearby human and animal populations. There are about ten lakes targetted as toxic waste dumps.  

7a) Water will be further privatized and commercialized under the Canada/EU free trade agreement (CETA)

7b) As the United Nations moved toward declaring water and sanitation a human right, Canada was one of two countries that abstained from or voted against this initiative at every opportunity. The other country was the Kingdom of Tonga.

8a) Canada has dropped from being the third-largest food exporter to the seventh.  The Conservatives back agri-business – the biotech, pharmaceutical, pesticide, seed, and grain companies – and free trade in agriculture, opening the doors to more CO2 emitting, industrial farming. 

8b) As corporations and investors – some foreign – buy up farmland, the Canada/EU trade agreement (CETA) will threaten farmers’ present rights to save, reuse, and sell seeds. It will give seed companies the power to seize crops and equipment and freeze bank accounts – if they even suspect infringement by a farmer.

Compromising Our Culture:

During the Canada/US free trade talks more than two decades ago and other deals since, efforts have been made to keep our culture off the commercial negotiating table. But, since Harper came to power, harm has been done by other means.

1a) In 2009, Harper dined with Rupert Murdoch, the notorious, right-wing head of Fox Broadcasting in New York.  Since then, the CRTC has given the go-ahead for a Fox News clone here. It also considered loosening Canadian journalism standards, legitimizing the idea that there is no such thing as truth, just opinions, but backed down after a public outcry. This change would have benefitted those who need to distort the truth 

for their survival.

1b) The CRTC is supposed to protect Canadian citizens, but too often it seems more concerned with Big Media. It is run by up to 19 commissioners appointed by cabinet (i.e., the prime minister). The latest appointee is the new vice-chair, Tom Pentefountas, who has no experience in telecommunications, but is connected to the Conservative Party. That's enough to earn him a six-figure salary.

2) At the same time, Harper is on record saying only CBC services which don’t have “commercial alternatives” should be subsidized, and parts of the broadcaster should be run “on a commercial basis.”  Dean Del Mastro, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage stated: "Maybe it's time we get out of the broadcasting business.”

3) As American publishing firms consolidate their distribution and sales in the US, their Canadian partners are disappearing. “I am frankly appalled that the Canadian government has not lifted a finger to come to the aid of anyone in the Canadian publishing industry,” said publisher Kim McArthur. 

4) Local bookstores, too, are dying because the government, apparently in violation of existing rules, gave permission to Amazon.com to ship books from within Canada. 

5) To amend the Copyright Act, the government has introduced Bill C-32, which, among other things, removes writers’ royalties when their work is used for education. Does that mean Microsoft and Coke will stop charging schools for their products?

Diminishing Our International Reputation:

During a recent visit to Canada, a prominent American professor told his audience that people outside our country are wondering what is happening here. It’s like The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, he said.  We’re not what we used to be.

1a) Canadian mining companies, with $20 Billion in government subsidies, are wreaking havoc in several countries.  There have been assassinations, attacks on villages, health and environmental damage, and human rights abuses related to their work. In Guatemala, January, 2007, Rights Action reports: “… then Skye Resources, now HudBay Minerals, participated in the forced evictions of a number of Mayan Qeqchi communities.  Hundreds of huts were burned to the ground or destroyed; personal property was destroyed or stolen; subsistence crops and animals were destroyed or stolen … Mariano Abarca, a community leader … opposing the health and environmental harms and human rights violations caused by barite mining. On November 27, 2009, he was assassinated in the town of Chicomuselo, state of Chiapas.  The alleged assassins are employees of and/or linked to Blackfire Exploration Inc, a Canadian mining company.” 

1b) Human Rights Watch recently confirmed allegations of gang rapes and other abuses by security guards at Barrick Gold’s Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) mine in Papua New Guinea.  

1c) Canada has virtually no criminal or civil laws to hold Canadian mining companies to account.  Efforts to pass Bill C-300 last year – which would have provided government oversight and possibly sanctions – failed.  Mining companies claimed it would make them less competitive.

2a) Once admired and respected, Canada wanted a seat on the UN Security Council, as it has had every decade since 1948, gaining power, respect, and influence. But it appears that the Harper government’s “I’m right you’re wrong” attitude alienated too many countries. 

2b) The Conservative government has helped prevent the UN from declaring asbestos a dangerous substance, and still promotes exports to poorer countries.  Canada took a lead in preventing GMO seeds – which stop farmers from replanting – from being banned under the UN convention on Biological Diversity. It also cut Canadian funding for the poorest countries in Africa. Even Harper’s personal cause maternal and child health is compromised by the fact that he opposes funding for safer abortions. More than 350,000 women die every year because of childbirth and pregnancy problems - 99 per cent in developing countries, causing children to suffer.

3) Harper seems to like authoritarian regimes. He has signed free trade agreements with Colombia – a militarized, right-wing country with government death squads – Jordan – which experienced similar protests to those in Egypt – and Panama – also a human rights abuser.  As well, it is negotiating with the regime in Honduras, which came to power in June, 2009, after a violent military coup – and is not recognized by most Latin American countries. 

4a) As Egyptians were peacefully demonstrating for democracy, Harper was blatantly dragging his feet on the subject.  His lack of enthusiasm put Canada in the company of Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, Algeria, and Israel.

4b) During the uprising, Harper was in the corrupt Kingdom of Morocco pushing free trade on behalf of his corporate backers. He has since delayed freezing the assets of the former Tunisian dictator’s family members here.

4c) During the popular uprising in Egypt, the Conservatives were mainly worried about the impact on Israel. The Conservatives’ almost unconditional support for Israel has raised questions internationally. Harper’s comment that Israel’s massive bombing of Lebanon in 2006, which led to many civilian deaths, was a “measured” response shocked many.

5) Days after the uprising and vicious reprisals in Libya, many nations had managed to evacuate their citizens. But the Conservative government didn’t assist a single Canadian. The government was “not much help.”  Instead, it was plagued by “confusion,” even though Harper claimed to care.  Our citizens had to hitch rides with other countries. Defence Minister Mackay blamed Foreign Affairs.

6) The Harper cabinet killed its own plan – announced by Peter Mackay in 2008 – to spend $70 million yearly on a Canadian Centre for Advancing Democracy. The Centre would have promoted democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in developing countries. Last fall, CIDA stopped funding the Parliamentary Centre of Canada's program in Haiti, which helped advise legislators as that country began to prepare for an election. The Centre also supported local politicians searching for more accountability in aid spending.

7) As well as KAIROS, the Conservatives are cutting $3.7-million from one of Canada’s most active international agencies, the Forum of Federations, which helps entities, such as South Sudan, create federal structure. Instead, they continue to make Ethiopia, a country whose democratic record is worsening, a priority for receiving aid. 

8) Under Harper, many more respected groups have experienced funding cuts or been totally de-funded, with little media attention, including the Canadian Council For International Co-operation and Match International. “Never mind that many de-funded organizations were promoting maternal and child health, ostensibly Mr. Harper's big personal cause. Yet because they also pursue issues that Stephen Harper will not abide – human rights for Palestinians, women’s equality, climate change – they are anathema in his eyes,” Gerald Caplan

9) “The same is true of the international human-rights organization Rights & Democracy. Suddenly, all of its good work around the world counted for nothing compared to small grants it gave to three groups, one of them Israeli, defending the human rights of Palestinians. So dangerously single-minded is Stephen Harper about punishing dissent that he hasn't hesitated to wreck R & D, an institution that had enhanced Canada's reputation wherever people embraced human rights and democracy,” Caplan.

10) Canada spends $4.5 Billion on aid, putting us at 14th out of 23 OECD countries. Worse, it is very difficult to determine where the money goes, and what kind of impact it is having. The international coalition Publish What You Fund, ranked Canada 23rd out of 30 countries for aid transparency. The Conservatives once claimed that transparency and accountability were important.  Therefore, Canada should join 18 of the world’s leading aid donors and sign the International Aid Transparency Initiative, which sets a global standard for aid transparency. Liberal Glen Pearson says we are witnessing “… the decline of CIDA as a powerful instrument of Canada’s collective compassion.”

11) Liberal Bob Rae highlighted the problems Canadian diplomats experience when they want to talk to the media and more. "Our ambassadors overseas ... are not allowed to comment on anything, ever, without first referring anything they might say or could say, to be approved by people in the prime minister's office," Rae said. He added that people in the prime minister's office who “have probably never been to the country in question, they don't know anything about it, probably in some cases could not find it on a map,” are telling people who have been “in the field for 30 years” how to do their jobs.

12) In March, 2009, UK MP George Galloway was refused entry to Canada because Immigration Minister Jason Kenney declared him a threat to national security – a terrorist. Many Canadians felt Kenney was motivated solely by his disagreement with Galloway’s opinions on the Middle East.  The Supreme Court agreed, noting that CSIS "had no concerns with Mr. Galloway's visit from a security perspective." Should the government get away with such forms of “defamation”?

13) Scheduled to speak recently in Calgary, Harper’s turf and riding, the renowned Indian scientist and activist Vandana Shiva was denied entry into Canada March 9. There was “an issue with her visa.” Shiva was going to receive a Consortium for Peace Studies award from the University of Calgary.

14) Again, there is the question of the Harper government contravening international law – in this case on child soldiers. The government’s abandonment of teenager Omar Khadr, leaving him as the only Western prisoner in Guatanamo Bay, raised many questions.

 

15) Six years ago, Canada enacted legislation to take the lead in providing low-cost, generic medicine to victims of AIDS, malaria, and other treatable diseases in the developing world.  Since then, only one shipment has been sent.  Now, Bill C-393 is designed to make the original legislation more effective, and it will be discussed in Parliament in early March.  Most Conservatives voted against the bill.

Minimizing Our Sovereignty:

Few Canadians realize how much power, decision-making ability, and economic control our governments have already surrendered to corporations, the US, and elsewhere through free trade and other agreements.  Harper is taking this further at a rapid rate with little consultation – or information.

1a) The Conservatives don’t want to alienate their corporate allies by toughening up foreign takeover rules.  They also don’t want Canadians reacting to the fact that their have been almost 12,000 takeovers since Mulroney opened Canada up for “business” – meaning that decision-making and profits leave the country, and jobs, pensions, benefits, and wages are cut. 

1b) Saving the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, for obvious political reasons, was a notable exception. About 97 percent of foreign direct investment is used to buy established companies, not create new ones.  Are Bombardier, Suncor, Research in Motion, and Magna vulnerable? 

2) Canadian business has another reason to worry.  CETA, the “free” trade deal with the EU, will allow Europe’s largest corporations access to provincial and municipal contracts.  (As Mayor Ford privatizes Toronto’s garbage.)

3a) The Harper Conservatives have made a lot of noise about their desire to protect Canadian sovereignty in the north.  However, if you look closely, the government is not worried about the future of ordinary citizens in the region.  As Maude Barlow points out, there has been a “free for all” drive to exploit our resources – from oil to mining ventures – much of it done by transnationals, which don’t have Canadian interests at heart. At the same time, Harper has used Arctic sovereignty as an excuse to buy those $30 Billion fighter jets.

3b) Harper’s push to exploit Artic resources was given a boost by a $100-million fund to kick-start the geo-mapping searches for minerals and oil and gas deposits, showing that the Conservatives see the ravages of climate change more as an economic opportunity than an environmental crisis. "We know from over a century of northern resource exploration that there is gas in the Beaufort, oil in the eastern Arctic and gold in the Yukon,” said Harper. ''There are diamonds in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, and countless other precious resources buried under the ice, sea and tundra … As I've said before, 'use it or lose it' is the first principle of sovereignty in the Arctic.”

3c) “Canada's sovereign claim to its Arctic regions will be evaluated by the UN in 2013. They will be looking to assess the "use it or lose it" philosophy espoused by Harper himself. A government intent on establishing Canada's Northern sovereignty needs to support our Northern peoples where and how they live. Saving our North cannot be just a military exercise or a question of ice breakers, as appealing as that is to Conservative sensibilities. It requires comprehensive, climate change mitigation and adaptation measures and social and economic supports so that our Northern peoples can use the North broadly in their daily lives. We need to reframe this debate. If we really want to defend the North (to use the Conservative militaristic terminology), we don't need jets as much as we need to fight climate change and the social and economic issues that plague the North.” Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell

4a) Harper wanted us to join the US in its disastrous invasion of Iraq.  It will be more difficult to say “no” in the future.  He is now negotiating a secretive “perimeter security” agreement with the United States, creating what has been called a “big vision of North America as an economic, environmental, and security unit.”  

4b) This includes increased amounts of exchanged data (remember Maher Arar?) harmonizing rules and regulations (recall bovine growth hormone), practices for screening offshore imports and travellers, and close collaboration on immigration, border protection, and law enforcement.  The border is “thinning.”

5) On February 14 of this year, Canada and the U.S. signed an agreement, paving the way for the militaries from each country to send troops across the other’s borders during an emergency.  Although the Harper government and Canadian Forces were silent on this, the U.S. Northern Command went public. Stuart Trew, a researcher with the Council of Canadians, said this deal could militarize civilian responses to emergencies, pointing out that work is also underway for a Canada/US plan to protect common infrastructure, such as roadways and oil pipelines. “Are we going to see (U.S.) troops on our soil for minor potential threats to a pipeline or a road?” he asked.